The Gazenkazza
by OnlyTheGhosts
Summary: Some Thing not seen for centuries has escaped into our world. Some Thing that's *extremely* dangerous. A story for Sapphire & Steel set in modern day Japan. - There will be many more chapters to come as this is a continuing story. - The cover can be found in original large scale in my DeviantArt galleries.
1. Chapter 1

*****The Gazenkazza*****

By OnlyTheGhosts

 ** **Chapter One****

Two young Japanese out on a lark, fooling around for a day among the abandoned ruin of an elongated single-storey building. The place was the last memories in concrete that remained of a business that had gone bankrupt many years before. She was extraordinarily attractive, sensual and cute at the same time, she was dressed in a pink and white girls' high school uniform. A recognisable cosplayer's outfit, probably from a famous animé. The pleated pink skirt was absurdly too short for public decency in most countries, but not seen as such here in Japan. The faux uniform was decorated with sequins and fake gems that glittered in the sunlight. She carried a large toy wand which was topped by a faceted huge plastic gem which shone a sparkling rainbow of tiny stars inside.

The man, a few years older than his partner, was dressed in what would have been seen as a particularly strange combination to Western eyes. His late 19th century black suit pants and jacket, worn with traditional wooden geta on his feet. He carried a heavy black sports bag in his left hand, and wore a bulky shoulder bag as well. His right hand carried what looked like an antique box-camera attached to a wooden tripod.

Where there had once been a drive way and carpark, there was only a field of high grass and bushes. The wall surrounding the property was intact though the old steel gate was covered with wooden boards. There were no guards. No cameras. Only the local teenagers came here frequently anymore. The young woman and the photographer were among a mere handful of adults to visit the ruin during the past decade. Apart from birds, there were occasionally seen stray cats.

It was a fine day, with scattered clouds among the azure sky. The leaves on the trees turning to gold, orange, and red with the colours of early autumn. Mildly hot, but tolerable. Perfect weather for romance perhaps.

The young woman giggled, and posed, as the photographer arranged his camera here, then moved it there. They moved around the overgrown field of the site, then as the afternoon heat began to fatigue, he called for his coquettish companion to come with him inside the elongated white single-storey building.

"Is there a way in?" she asked, not seeing any open doorways. Everything appeared still locked. It was also a dirty mess, and she didn't like the dirt.

"There's a gap somewhere . . . probably" he answered.

After a little searching, it was her that found where grillwork for a gate had been broken in one of the private parking areas. A place where a single car would've been parked and a couple on a romantic interlude could have entered their rented suite in total privacy, unobserved by anyone outside the building. The man pushed the hanging gate aside further to allow the woman to enter, but she had to bend down anyway. Getting inside without smudging dirt on the expensive cosplay outfit was likely near impossible, yet she mostly managed to look as if she'd achieved it. If anything, the man was more careful than she, as he seriously didn't want to risk damage to the old outfit he was wearing.

Inside, past the narrow gate was a short corridor, a place possibly for leaving shoes behind when the hotel had been in operation. A dark-stained door was already open. Neighbourhood children must have been through that doorway many times before. The woman was staring around at the walls in the dim suite when the photographer came in. He shone an LED torch about, showing walls covered with a wallpaper that was decorated with a bamboo forest in high photographic quality. The floor was covered by traditional tatami mats. A ratty, stained, futon was in the middle of the room, half rolled up, covered with bits of plaster which had fallen from the decaying ceiling. The wall opposite the doorway was broken open and a wild greenery of trees could be seen outside, their leaves beginning to change colours for the cooling season.

"We could have more easily come in that way" the photographer commented. As he was staring at the greenery, a dark-patched grey cat passed by, among the trees and grass. It was difficult to see it, maybe because it was becoming darker outside, and the bushes, trees, grass hid the feline shape as well.

"Have you noticed that all the cats look the same?" the young woman asked. She spun her toy wand idly, the glittering stars within it's plastic gem shining upon the walls nearby.

"Eh? Same family, maybe the mother cat and father cat were related too."

"Either that, or I keep seeing the same cat."

"You're being stalked by a cat. He thinks you're cute too."

"As long as he doesn't follow me home, my sister says I have too many pets already" the girl replied with a mischievous smile.

"You don't have any pets . . . "

"She's referring to the guys who hang around and keep coming over to visit like you do".

The photographer chuckled. "Your sister . . . Hey? Did you see that?" He turned, startled but his female companion didn't know what he was talking about. There was nothing there in the direction the man was staring.

"Uh-huh? I don't see anything."

"I just . . . I could have . . . No . . . I must have imagined that. Don't worry about it, the light's going and I'd like to take a few more photos before the sun goes down."

The man set up his big boxy camera on the sticks. He also put up some electric lights, all battery-powered. Then briefly he used a smartphone camera to take a few snapshots of himself and the girl posing with the box camera next to them. All looking great in their costumes, afterwards he used the big camera while the young woman posed seductively. She pouted. She flirted. She bent over and posed indecently. She also point-blank refused to lie down on the horrible old futon. n the glare of the electric lights the photographer had set up on stands, the young woman's costume glittered and flickered as if truly magical.

She posed by the old jukebox that was in one corner of the bedroom of the suite, the top covered by dirt and leaves. There were song titles visible from a couple of decades past. Inside, pass the glass top, it could be seen that the jukebox had used laser discs. They seemed so ungainly oversized now. I

She also posed in the ensuite bathroom, which was in traditional Japanese style, as if copied from a museum. A wooden, circular tub, with a wooden boarded lid which was removable. There was a more modern shower hose though, the faucets could be turned but no water came, of course. The bathroom also had wooden slats covering the walls, so almost gave the impression of a place in an old movie.

Sometimes, a cat would go by outside. The young man later agreed with the girl after seeing the cats several times. The cats did all look alike. They also sometimes stared in that peculiar way of cats. Their eyes seemed to glow as the shadows lengthened and the light faded outside. Always a bluish glow. Not quite like what the photographer expected from reflected eye-shine but he supposed the LEDs he had for the light stands had a blue tint to them.

After awhile, the young woman noticed that the number of cats outside was increasing. She was unsettled by that. Plus, she seriously could not distinguish them apart . . . and they all began staring way too long. They'd stop and watch. Too intently. It was unnerving. She was thankful when before asking, the man began preparing to leave. He started packing away his camera gear but left the electric lights on their stands until last. Finally he put away the lights, but packing these in an uncharacteristic hurry.

Like her, the man was spooked by the place. The cats acted weird. They looked identical. He couldn't keep count of how many there were, because as they came and went, they all looked the same, and now over a dozen were outside. Just watching. Staring. After the LED lights had been packed away, the cat's eyes continued shining that same shade of blue. An odd flickering blue.

The couple rushed clumsily as they got out through the broken gate. They could have gone out the other way. Past the cats. They chose to avoid the cats.

"I'm scared" was all the girl said.

"Yeah, but it's only cats."

"Can haunted places have ghost cats?" she asked.

The photographer laughed. "Maybe they're ghosts in cat cosplay outfits."

That made the girl giggle too, but the cheerfulness was momentary.

"When I get back, I want to study the video and photos more. I did some video of those cats. They act too odd. How do their eyes shine like that?"

The man helped the young woman to climb over the property wall first. Then passed over his bags for her to take. As she was waiting for him to climb over next, while he was still out of her direct sight, she heard him comment "That's a strange cat . . . Maybe they are ghosts . . . Amaya-chan, I saw one move in a very strange way. No! That's not real. It can't be real!"

Amaya tried to look over the wall, to see what her boyfriend was talking about. She saw a glimpse of a huge shadow.

She screamed.

. . .


	2. Chapter 2

*****The Gazenkazza*****

By OnlyTheGhosts

 ** **Chapter**** ** **Two****

The tall grass rippled in the wind as dawn's golden light simultaneously brought a beautiful drama of colour and yet left long dark shadows from the abandoned building. There appeared to be nobody around except the grasses, buses, and a few trees to the west of the property. A white-painted concrete wall surrounded the area, a little less than two metres high, forming a mostly empty square a hundred metres on a side. Apart from the rustling of leaves and grass stirred by the cool early morning breeze, the only frequent sounds were from the few birds in the trees, and the insects. Occasionally the roar of a vehicle going past on the nearby road broke the general quiet. The leaves on the trees with their hues of yellow, brown, orange, and red were made more glorious by the light of dawn's golden hour.

A blonde, tussle-haired man appeared on the roof of the elongated white building, and walked cautiously about, his expression implied mild distaste at the location. He wasn't there before, and hadn't climbed the wall either. He was just there where before he wasn't. His dark grey shoes were unscuffed as if brand new. His blue-grey business suit and light grey necktie untouched by any grime. His white shirt was so brilliantly clean and bright, it may have just been bought. His mousy-blonde hair was untidily long and messy, obscuring most of his high forehead, but brushed casually back at the sides. He very slightly scowled as he strode from one end of the roof of the building to the other.

As if the man already knew she'd be there, he called to a tall, beautiful blonde-haired woman was strolling through the tall grass in the field below.

"I haven't found it yet and the area seems rather ordinary, spot checking isn't one of my strong talents unfortunately." The man spoke Japanese with the perfect pronunciation of a native, but his accent hinted of cold northern regions and mountains. Nothing about him was oriental in feature, he clearly wasn't from this part of the world.

The woman turned to slowly look about her, her blue evening dress shimmered in the morning light, but was as equally untouched by any dirt or the normal expected hazards of the environment. Then she faded away in moments to appear on the rooftop close by the man in the grey business suit. She was a little taller than him, perhaps due to the high-heeled pumps she wore on her feet. Like her dress, these were blue, and totally unmarked by any dirt.

"I can find no breach, no break, not a whisper of an open portal, I can sense disturbance. There was an incursion" she told the man.

"Describe what you sense in detail, I need more to work with here" the man said impatiently in tone.

"Like a doorway was opened but with no door to be seen. A being, not alive, not dead, entered this world near this spot with no odour, no image, and no sound. As if stepping from the shadows in a darkened theatre then leaving before the audience could catch a glimpse of who or what it was."

"Is there evidence of erasure, time tampering, or minimizing of the signature?"

The woman stared about, with eyes glowing blue and bright, unnatural for anything human.

"Erasure with overlap and moment skipping . . . Steel, neither you nor I can do this."

The man, Steel, didn't express any surprise at the information.

"Temporal combat technique for simultaneous subterfuge while out manoeuvring an opponent in space-time", stated the man, "I've studied the theory. Very high level art. Very costly in energy." He paused in thought for a few seconds, then asked, "Can you find any past echoes or sense the time approximation for when the incursion occurred?"

The woman nodded, crouching down to place her left hand on the roof of the building they both stood upon. She laid her palm flat against the collection of leaves, detritus, and the concrete underneath. Then stood a few seconds later.

"Fifteen hours ago. Two people. Very high probability both were human. They were here for an extended period of about five hours and twenty minutes. There was fear in them as night approached. They tried to flee the area. One, the woman, succeeded in escaping on foot. The other, a man, failed and was unable to exit the property, nor cross the wall. He was not killed. His existence ended near here and he vanished."

Steel nodded, then strode towards the edge of the roof. He said brusquely, "Show me where the male victim's path ended."

The blonde woman was suddenly in the field of tall grass and wild bushes, very close to the property wall adjacent to the nearby road.

Steel pointed, "The female who was with the male victim may have gone beyond the wall there then."

In moments, both Steel and the beautiful woman were on the outside of that wall. They hadn't jumped the wall, nor climbed it. Both were simply there. At the base of the wall near their feet was a large, rather full-looking, duffel bag on the bitumen pavement. A couple of metres away was the road. Sometimes a car or truck passed by.

The man in the grey suit crouched down to check the contents of the heavy bag. He unzipped the bag and the side pockets, glanced inside, but removed nothing.

"Cameras, tripods, extensible monopole, extra lenses, another set of clothes including socks, jeans, T-shirt, faux leather jacket, and sneakers. I believe there's a wallet, please find what you can from it. I'm going to track the path taken by the female victim when she fled.

Only a little further down the road about several hundred paces away, the man in the grey suit came upon a woman's high-heeled slipper. Very pretty, sparkly, and pink. He found the other one of the pair of shoes half-hidden among weeds by the roadside. There was nothing particularly unusual about the region. A few farms, mixed with other businesses that wouldn't be near houses and needed more land. A hotspring resort hotel sign could be seen another kilometre further on. On the direct opposite side of the road was a construction site but it was still quiet so early in the morning. The sun was beginning to climb but the golden hour wasn't over yet. Beyond the farms on the side of the road where Steel stood, were thickly forested hills, and beyond them could be seen mist shrouded low mountains with steep slopes.

Steel studied the ground near where he found the shoes. There was a stain from engine oil, as a vehicle had parked there for awhile. Possibly a small automobile.

He headed back to the original location.

"What was the nature of this place's business" he asked the woman.

"A love hotel." The woman informed him.

"Oh . . . a romantic sort of hotel then." Steel guessed.

"Uh . . . You could say that. The owners went bankrupt twenty-five years ago leaving a tangle of debts among six different creditors who were unable to agree on what to do with their suddenly gained unwanted property."

"Didn't give the impression of being completely forgotten by the local teenagers."

"No, they wouldn't have been allowed to partake of the promise of the place when it was operating as a business, so they likely sneak in now and again."

Steel shrugged, not particularly interested in human affairs.

"What could you find of interest among the male victim's possessions?"

The woman answered, "He was a professional photographer. His name was Inoda Takeshi. I have his address details. His car should have been parked nearby as he has a driver's license but the car keys aren't here."

The man in the grey suit harrumphed and said, "His female companion drove the car away. I found the stains from the engine oil near where I found her shoes."

Steel easily hefted the large duffel bag, "I may as well bring this, let's go to that address you mentioned."

They glanced at each other, her eyes meeting his, and both faded away.

. . .


End file.
